Jazmine Dirks is twenty-three year old who has a busy life, but makes sure she makes time for a little fun.

Dirks graduated from Morninside College in 2014 with a B.S. in Corporate Communications, a B.A. in photography, and a minor in Studio Arts. She is currently working on getting her Certification in Art Education and M.A. in Art Education at the University of Iowa.

While at Iowa Dirks is also a T.A. for an art class which she teacher’s students that attend the University of Iowa.

While at Morningside Dirks was very involved. She was on the soccer team for a few years, was in the art club, and played a huge role in Photography Club her junior and senior year. She also worked at her campus coffee shop, the Spoonholder.

When asked about extra curricular activity at Iowa, Dirks said, “ I was very much involved at Morningside, however, graduate school is a different ball game. If I’m not in class, I am doing homework, teaching or grading.”

Dirks seems to be all work and no play. She is very focused on her schoolwork and her teaching. She loves teaching, but did not always want to do it for the rest of her life.

It wasn’t until her last semester at Morningside that she truly realized what she wanted to do for a career, which is to be a teaching artist. She realized this after taking an education course that had a practicum component built in.

She got to experience sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classrooms. For the class they had to spend at least twenty hours or practicum hours, Dirks ended up spending around sixty hours in her classrooms.

Dirks said that she had never felt this way about a career before and she knew she had to look more into it even thought she was ready to be done with school.

Now that she has to go to school longer Dirks is happy with the decision she had made. She said, “ It is a great feeling to be so passionate about something and feel so reassured that I am heading in the right direction with my career choice every time I teach.”

Dirks talked about how she always finds herself in a stressful situations. She’s either stressed about school, work, or sometimes just everyday life things.

***Anecdote****

Even though Dirks is very busy with her schoolwork, she makes sure to have fun every now and then.

Some of Dirks hobbies consist of; running, reading, movies, and one of her favorites, discovering new craft beers and wine.

Dirks has also done a lot of traveling in the past and plans to continue as her life goes on.

A lot of the travels that she was a part of have been with Morningside professor Dolie Thompson. She has traveled to Las Vegas, New York, and Chicago that were all for photography conferences.

She was lucky enough to be invited by Thompson to go on a three-week trip Europe to do a research study of the culture through a photographic lens.

When asked what she thought of Jazmine, Dolie Thompson had this to say,”…………..(still need to interview)……”

Dirks is a very busy girl that spends most of her days feeling stressed out. In the end she thinks that all the stress and hard work will pay off. She is very excited to start student teaching next year because that is one step closer to where she needs to be.